Chain of Gold (The Last Hours, book 1)

By Cassandra Clare

Blurb: 
Welcome to Edwardian London, a time of electric lights and long shadows, the celebration of artistic beauty and the wild pursuit of pleasure, with demons waiting in the dark. For years there has been peace in the Shadowhunter world. James and Lucie Herondale, children of the famous Will and Tessa, have grown up in an idyll with their loving friends and family, listening to stories of good defeating evil and love conquering all. But everything changes when the Blackthorn and Carstairs families come to London…and so does a remorseless and inescapable plague.

James Herondale longs for a great love, and thinks he has found it in the beautiful, mysterious Grace Blackthorn. Cordelia Carstairs is desperate to become a hero, save her family from ruin, and keep her secret love for James hidden. When disaster strikes the Shadowhunters, James, Cordelia and their friends are plunged into a wild adventure which will reveal dark and incredible powers, and the true cruel price of being a hero…and falling in love.

Review: 
I was so hyped for this book since it was announced. A sequel series to my all time favourite series. But then as the release date was getting closer and after not loving The Dark Artifices as much as the other Shadowhunter series, I was starting to get worried the book wouldn’t live up to the hype. However, this book did not let me down. I struggled to let it down. 

If you haven’t read The Infernal Devices yet, I’d advise reading it before Chain of Gold. I just think the little things will make more sense and you’ll attach to things more emotionally. I will also say now that there will be Infernal Devices spoilers within this review. Then the spoilers section will contain Chain of Gold specific ones.

The book is based on the children of The Infernal Devices characters. There’s a lot of characters, leading to me making a family tree. The main kids are Lucie and James Herondale. Children of Tessa and Will Herondale. Then you’ve got Cordelia and Alistair Carstairs. They’re the cousins of Jem Carstairs. Matthew and Charles Fairchild are Henry and Charlotte's children. There is more such as the Lightwoods but I’d say those are the very main characters.

The main plot is that demons are targeting Shadowhunters, even in daylight and the book is trying to stop it and figure out why it is happening. It has a fairly finalised ending but plenty of room to continue with. Which I love.

Something a bit different about this book compared to previous Shadowhunter books is that there was a past chapter every now and then. This chapter was about one of the main characters. They just give a bit of background to the characters or the story in general. I quite liked them.

I think if I was to force out a negative I’d say that there were a lot more big words in this book. I’m just glad I read it on kindle, so I could look them up. I can’t complain really as they matched the setting of Edwardian England. But as a dsylexic, I was noticing a lot of harder to read words than I am used to with Cassandra Clare books.

This book was amazing. An easy 5 stars. It was great having little bits from the characters from The Infernal Devices but all grown up and mature. I’m also glad they weren’t in it too much to give the spot light to their children. Everything in this book clicked perfectly. This is definitely in my top 3 favourite books of all time.

*SPOILERS*

The book opens with a story from the past about 10 year old Lucie. She falls into a fairy trap and is rescued by an odd man believed to be a changeling. He leaves and she doesn’t see him again till later on in this book, where we discover he is Jesse Blackthorn as a ghost. This becomes a b plot of their odd friendship/loyalty to each other. Only she and other Blackthorns can see him. Herondales are known for seeing ghosts but it turns out Jesse is a special ghost and Lucie discovers she has control over ghosts. 

I enjoyed this little side story. It was nice to see how Lucie differs from James more. It’s also interesting because a family tree printed in The Dark Artifices shows Lucie marries Jesse Blackthorn, so does this mean he stops being a ghost at some point. It’s still very mysterious at this point. 

The main plot was more about James. Because of Tessa’s warlock blood, James was capable of seeing other dimensions. The one he saw he called the Shadow Land. This plot vibe was a lot like Stranger Things. As he could see things in it that the others couldn’t but they could still be attacked by it. It seemed like the Upside Down to me. I did like it and I still think it’s a fresh concept and not at all inspired because of how long Cassandra Clare has been writing these books. It was just a familiar vibe.

I loved the ball in the beginning of the book. We basically got introduced to all the characters in one go. The ball didn’t end particularly well but until that point it was lovely and so easy to picture. 

20% through the book and that's when the plot started to really begin. The young shadowhunters were attacked during daylight which is unheard of. This led to 3 shadowhunters to end up conscioused. It was so dramatic and it was funny to picture men and women dressed in Edwardian fashion fighting demons.

One character I purposely left out of the family tree explanation was Grace Blackthorn. The adopted sibling to Jesse Blackthorn and adopted child of Tatiana Blackthorn (formally Lightwood). I’ve hated a lot of characters in book history. But I don’t think I’ve hated any as much as I hate Grace Blackthorn. She is the absolute worst.  

First she tricks James into falling in love with her through a magic bracelet. Even though he clearly loves Cordelia. Then she tricks him again by testing him to see if he would become mundane with her and leave his family. He refused thankfully. Then she immediately gets engaged to Charles. We discover she never loved him or anyone. Then when James gets engaged to Cordelia, she puts the bracelet back on, so he’s clueless again. She is so selfish to manipulate someone’s feelings like that for her own gain. Also she is no longer engaged to Charles so she’s single and read to take James back. She makes me so mad.

I think something that took this book to the next level was a death so soon. Barabra Lightwood who was the first to be attacked in the park, tragically died. We didn’t know much about her but it was upsetting seeing her brother Thomas Lightwood so upset. It just goes to show that this series is no holds barred. 

There are a lot of LGBT+ relationships in this book. First you got the obvious one Anna Lightwood. She has such a Gentleman Jack vibe (if you know of that TV series/book). Anna does what she pleases, leaves on her own and seems to be very open and accepted for her sexuality. 

Then you got Matthew who is a bi-sexual but that one isn’t as big of a deal as he clearly likes Lucie and Cordelia. The main gay characters are Thomas, Alistair and Charles. Alistair loves Charles but also has a thing for Thomas. Charles wants political power so he doesn’t want his love for Alistair known. Thomas clearly has a thing for Alistair. I prefer Alistair and Thomas and hope they win the series. 

I find the LGBT+ relationships to be very fitting to the times. As those relationships still existed back then. Some people suppressed it like Alistair and made them come across as cruler just because of all the anger they hold in themselves. Whereas some flaunt it like Anna and Matthew as they don’t care what others say.

A very unexpected storyline is the alcoholism of Matthew Fairchild. Wasn’t expecting him to have such a dark background. It’s quite sad but certainly interesting. The book itself doesn’t tell us why he is a drunk but it hints that it has something to do with him murdering someone. A life he hadn’t met yet. 

I was unsure of what this meant. But then I watched PolandbananasBooks, a bookish youtuber do a review of the book. She explained that it was the child that Charlotte lost in pregnancy. We knew in the book that that much had happened. However in Ghosts of the Shadow Market which I haven’t read yet apparently it has a story that shows Matthew buying a truth potion to give to his mother. Which led to the child to die. So through that deduction it makes sense. Matthew is filled with guilt for killing his new sibling by accident. 

I think by the end of the series with his idol Magnus Bane help. He’ll overcome it and realise it was a mistake that he shouldn’t feel guilty about. 

Going on to something positive. I think one of my favourite scenes is James and Cordelia's first kiss. James and Cordelia are on a mission with Matthew and Anna to steal something from a warlock. So eventually the situation ends up with them two alone in the whisper room and they don’t want people coming in. So when someone opens the door they just start passionately making out. When they leave, they don’t stop. It just escalated further. Until eventually Matthew walks in on them. In that scene you can tell James feel the same way and he knows it but because of the bracelet he thinks differently. 

I can guarantee by the end of the series Cordelia and James will be happily married and in love. There is no doubt in my mind. It’s just gonna be an uphill battle until that point. 

My final thought on the book. Throughout the book it kept talking about a woman being ruined. This is done by them developing a reputation of not staying pure before they’re married. I didn’t think much of it until the end, when I realised it was foreshadowing the end of the book. Cordelia decided to sacrifice herself to be perceived as ruined so James could not be punished. She claimed James had been in her room all night when in reality he burned down the old Lightwood house. This is why they got engaged so she wouldn’t be ruined as much. It just shows you’ve got to pay attention to the detail in Cassandra Clare books.

 Quote: 

'"Someone should neutralize you, you mopstick"'

- Thomas Lightwood, Chain of Gold

Rating: 5 runes out of 5 

 written by Lauren